Please read the questions and answers below before writing in. If you are a dance promoter and want your information listed on this website, refer to the formatting guidelines. Please note that the comments on this webpage generally apply to both the regular dancenet and tangonet webpages, though I usually update the tango pages more often (yes, there's a reason why the two websites look similar).
Note: The earlier you get your information to me, the earlier I get it on the website and the longer it's visible on the website. If it's a calendar item, it gets you a higher spot for events on that date.
Three important rules:
Sometimes I'll pick up flyers at dances...and sometimes I'll find those same flyers at the bottom of my backpack. You're better off sending email because I won't delete the message until I type the information in.
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something pink or very light red (color "#ffcccc"),
indicates workshops, particularly featuring someone from out of town who's not around
all the time. Workshops by local teachers are considered just "classes" and don't get
highlighted in the local calendar. There might be an evening dance along with the
workshops but they'll be normal local dances, either regularly scheduled or scheduled.
I generally do not list ballroom workshops.
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or a light green (color "#ccffcc"), indicates a dance
weekend like Beantown Lindy Hop Camp
or the Boston Tea Party
which feature dancing and workshops. This usually indicates an event that might
bring in people from other parts of the country and offer workshops with
teachers from other parts of the country or the world. This was once a weird
brownish color because I didn't realize that my LCD monitor wasn't displaying
this particular shade of green correctly.
,
a very pale yellow (color "#ffffcc"), indicates a special
dance event of just dancing, like a local lindy exchange. There're no visiting teachers;
it's just an organized (or unorganized) grouping of dancing. I usually forget and use
the green (above) instead. This may change if the highlighting isn't noticeable on my monitor.
This is not to say that I'm always consistent about it. There are more listings
for workshops by a visiting instructor so I'm used to using the
color. Occasionally I might be merrily typing away and enter the pink background color instead of
perhaps the
color for a dance weekend event. It's really not a big deal because I'll
eventually catch and fix it. The whole point was to make it stand out and
get noticed by the reader and that happens regardless of the background color.
, a very bright
and strong yellow (color "#ffff00"), is a new color that I'm using. I decided that I wanted a special
color to highlight something I'm strongly supporting and will probably attend, such
as the 25th Anniversary dance of the Boston
Swing Dance Network. I'm not going to be using this color designation
much, but if I do, you'll know that it's something special that I support. Hmm... Maybe I
should be using this color for the Beantown Lindy Hop Camp.
No, you can't buy the highlighting for your event.
*DO NOT* ask me for any specific information. I live in Boston and don't get out to most of the venues listed on my website. If I don't go dancing in Worcester, MA, it should be a pretty reasonable guess that I won't know anything about dancing in Illinois.
If you don't find the information on my website, that means I don't know anything about that venue so asking me directly will just piss me off. And don't even think about asking if you're not willing to look for that information yourself.
I expect the dance promoters and venues (the ones who make money off dancing and want customers!) to send me the information. Dance venues that want their events publicized should send me the information instead of waiting for me to find it myself. I do not spend my days surfing the web to get information; I don't have the time nor the inclination to do so. However, this website is one of the better maintained dance websites out there.
I've caught other websites that have plagarized directly from my website. That's why I prefer a direct email message from a dance promoter because that means someone stands behind that information. An email message is also a persistent reminder that I need to edit this website because I leave the message in my mailbox until I get around to adding the event.
I normally do not use other browsers unless I have to so testing on those other platforms will be minimal However, I do have the following on my computers:
If I hear about problems with a specific browser, I'll see if I can fix them. However, I spend most of my time on Firefox so you can save me a lot of work by just using that.
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Note that I'm interesting in *dancing* information. I am not interested in listing events that are "performances", whether by a band or a dance company. I'm interested in situations for *social* dancing. Ask yourself: "Do I get to hold the girl's hand for the duration of the song?"
Please leave out the typical *propaganda* about what a great teacher you are, what a happening place your venue is, how your band is really hopping, what nice things people say about your venue, or even how many competitions you've won (especially when you describe yourself in the third person). I'm *not* impressed. The number of competitions that a dancer has won is no indicator of whether or not they're good teachers. That information will never make it into this website and it just aggravates me to have to wade through the sludge to find the relevant information that my readers need. It also takes more time to get into the website.
A certain teacher came through Boston at one point for workshops. This was a teacher who danced in at least one movie and is clearly an awesome dancer/performer. I also heard from a local dancer that this visiting instructor was *terrible* at teaching. Don't assume that I know who you are and what a wonderful teacher or band you are.
The really smart people send their information *months* in advance, because it means their listings will be visible for that entire time.
Bottom line: check the website after you send your listing and make sure I spelled everything correctly. Sending it in *early* means there's time to fix any typos.
Don't bother me about typos that have no material effect on the event. If I capitalize the second letter of a word, the world will not go up in flames, particularly for a calendar listing that will get deleted after the event takes place.
I can, however, direct you to some hosting services that offer very good service or send you to a website that rates hosting services. Check out my friends at the Boston Web Company and Wasserman Graphics if you want a good looking website for advertising your business and *attracting* customers.
Yes, I usually get into a bad mood when I edit this page. That's because, once in a while, some idiot will feel entitled to tell me what to do with *my* website. Most likely, they didn't read this page.
One *profit-making* entrepreneur thought that I just sat around all day in front on my computer waiting to type their dance information into my webpages and couldn't understand why I didn't want to read all the duplicate copies of their mailings. Of course, they also sent their information on a Monday, after I had updated the website for the week. Some people have no other purpose in life than to serve as a *bad* example. I came very close to banning them from this website. Don't be a bad example. And no, I would have no problems with banning someone from this website.
I considered getting sponsors for the tango pages but I figured it would cause a lot of problems...for me.
I don't expect to invite such venues as bars that happen to offer swing dancing to be sponsors. These kinds of places will offer swing dancing as long as they think they can make money off it and they tend to change their mind fairly quickly. Businesses that see swing dancing as a cash cow instead of a win-win situation will not be invited to be sponsors. Businesses that have treated me and/or other dancers poorly won't get my seal of approval. Remember that if you're ever rude to a dance customer. Naturally, I'm not interested in Country-Western or Ballroom venues as sponsors. There have been a couple of sponsors who approached me first, but I was about to invite them in anyways. I imagine that there are also plenty of venues that have no interest in becoming a DanceNet sponsor.
Bottom line: don't ask.
However, I do feel completely entitled to speak my mind in *my* Soapbox.
Now, do I have some favorites and some bias for them? Of course, I do. :-) How do you get there? Well, it'd be no fun if I just told you how. :-P
It's easy to get from 3 to 2. I just have to meet and talk to you. Getting from 2 to 1 is tough because I have to feel good about your dance business because I'm basically giving my personal endorsement of that business and feel that the venue deserves the remaining sponsorship spots. Oh yeah, be careful about how you deal with your customers: I might be one of them. And your customers talk to me all the time.
My little sister has this little saying: "Piss me off; pay the price". If you're in group 4, you have a lot to do to make up for whatever you did (to me and/or my friends in the dance community. I really don't want the goodwill of this website to be associated with bad people. You know who you are. Or maybe you don't.
My name is Benson Wong and I am the editor of DanceNet on the Web and I'm the only one who works on it. I can be reached at dancenet@havetodance.com.
